‘Carousel' gets a new look at Boston Lyric Opera
'Now I can write you,' Rodgers penned in a letter to his wife one week into the Boston tryout, 'Because last night we had a SHOW!'
Now,
is directed by three-time BLO director Anne Bogart, conducted by the Opera's music director David Angus, and performed by a cast of over 50 artists.
When BLO approached Bogart about directing the anniversary production, she said the decision was a no-brainer. 'My entire being said yes, immediately with no hesitation,' she said. 'Because I know what a powerful piece it is, what a piece of history it is, and what a remarkable achievement it is to create a piece that's both a popular American musical and also operatic in its form.'
Director Anne Bogart (C) instructed the cast during a rehearsal of Boston Lyric Opera's "Carousel" production.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
'Carousel'
is Rodgers and Hammerstein's second musical, written just a few years after their smash hit debut (a show that had arrived in Boston in 1943 as 'Away We Go!' and left as 'Oklahoma!'). Through Rodgers' sweeping, romantic melodies and Hammerstein's lyrics, 'Carousel' tells the story of carousel barker Billy Bigelow (Edward Nelson) and millworker Julie Jordan (Brandie Sutton). The pair quickly fall in love and get married–but then their lives take a dark turn. First, Billy, out of work and frustrated, hits Julie. Then, when she reveals she's pregnant, he decides to take part in a robbery to provide financially for his future child. The robbery goes awry, Billy dies in the process, and the musical follows along as he leaves Earth and meets the Starkeeper (played by Boston Foundation President
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The grim aspects of 'Carousel''s plot have, for better or for worse, come to define the show. 'The most common comment I get from people is, 'Why are you doing that piece? It's depressing, it's miserable,'' Angus said.
Angus's two-part retort? First, this is an opera theater, and opera specialists are well-accustomed to handling material riddled with violence and darkness. And second, while the plot of 'Carousel' might not be the breeziest, its message is ultimately one of hope. 'It's facing up to reality and saying 'it's okay,'' Angus said. 'It's actually a hugely uplifting piece.'
Because of 'Carousel''s reputation, particularly around its treatment of Billy and domestic violence, some productions cut some of the book's more controversial lines. But Bogart decided that this production would treat the musical as a historical artifact and perform it entirely intact, while setting it contemporaneously to put the work in direct conversation with present-day audiences.
Bogart thus approached her work with the meticulousness of a historian. She and her assistant, Calvin Atkinson, spent hours at a time researching the production's history and analyzing the book line by line. That way, Bogart said, she could 'fuel [her] instincts' as director. 'Once we start to rehearse, it has to happen so quickly,' she says. 'All those choices in the moment are informed by months of preparation.'
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Brandie Sutton (R) and Omar Nadmi (L) performed during a rehearsal of Boston Lyric Opera's "Carousel" production.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Meanwhile, Angus was diving just as deeply into the music as he prepared to conduct this production's 46 piece orchestra. 'Carousel' is known for a few enduring hits—'If I Loved You,' 'June Is Bustin' Out All Over,' 'You'll Never Walk Alone'—but the entire, near-continuous score is richly layered, full of off-kilter harmonies and subtle musical themes that represent the different characters. (For the rest of his life, Rodgers insisted that this was his favorite score he ever wrote.)
While 'Carousel' is colloquially classified as a musical, it has appeared at both opera theaters and more traditional musical theaters over the years, and productions have featured both opera and musical theater artists (the difference between the two genres, Angus says, is far from black and white). True to opera tradition, the vocalists at BLO will project their voices without microphones, which Angus says allows them to express emotion more authentically. 'Real singing without amplification,' he said, 'is humans communicating with each other.'
It's an effect that's so powerful that both Angus and Bogart confess that they've teared up in more than one rehearsal. For Angus, the emotional apex is Julie's second act solo 'What's the Use of Wond'rin,' in which she affirms that she'll always love Billy in spite of his faults. For Bogart, it's the message of redemption embedded in the iconic 'You'll Never Walk Alone,' performed in this production by lauded opera singer
'I'm working, I'm working, and then all of a sudden, I'm crying,' Bogart said.
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This, Angus said, is the magic of opera—that music written decades ago can reach out from the past and touch the audiences of today.
'When it's done well, it gets you in the heart, whether it's this, or Mozart, or Puccini,' Angus said. 'You'll go out sobbing, or elated—you'll be changed.'
CAROUSEL
$48+, April 4, 6, 11, 13, 7:30 p.m. April 4 and 11, 3 p.m., April 6 and 13, Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St., Boston,
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